Halloween With Council Member Viverito

Hundreds of local youth and adults visited our safe, natural haven of Brook Park after-school on Halloween. With pumpkins provided by the NYC Department of Parks and recreation and a DJ funded through the Office of Council Member Melissa Mark Viverito, our community had a great family celebration. With healthy fruit alternatives to sugar candy, apple bobbing and marshmallow roasting under the changing leaves, it was a holiday to remember!

Bronx Community Garden Bike Tour

Dear Friends:

*Never fear, the Bronx Community Garden Bike Tour is BACK for its second
annual appearance!

Please pass on this e-mail to your lists - the date is THIS SUNDAY!!!
**
SUNDAY OCTOBER 26, 2008
*COFFEE & PASTRIES 10:00 a.m.
*RIDE STARTS 10:30 a.m.
PADRE PLAZA COMMUNITY GARDEN
E. 139th STREET & ST. ANN'S AVENUE*


We will meet at *Padre Plaza Garden at 10:00 a.m**.* for something to get us
warmed up, and will begin the ride at 10:30 a.m.

The garden is located at:
*East 139th Street** between Brook & St. Ann's (corner of St. Ann's)
See Oasis map of NYC community gardens:
http://www.oasisnyc.net

or check Council on the Environment's website:
http://www.cenyc.org

*Padre Plaza can be reached via the *#6 train to Brook Avenue /138th Street,
* the second stop in the Bronx via Manhattan.
*Check the MTA website the night before the ride.* Subway route changes
happen often due to construction!
*www.mta.info* - or -
*http://www.mta.info/nyct/service/subsrvnweekend.htm*

We're finalizing the route... if you have must-visit gardens in mind, let us
know no later than Wednesday. We're looking for special things to do or
see, such as chicken coops, bee hives, cool compost centers, water
collection systems, special structures -- or just plain wonderful people and
fabulous gardens! And if we can't visit this year, there's always next
year!

Attached is a *Registration/Waiver* form.
*Please complete the form* and e-mail it back to
jlawrence64@yahoo.com = or = fax it to (718) 387-5059.
Do it in advance - it will save us all time!

*We still need volunteers!
Route marshals & ride contacts, set-up, clean-up, etc.
If you can help out, please contact me!
*
*Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you on Sunday October 26!*

*-Julie
on behalf of the Bronx Garden Bike Tour Steering Committee
*
*jlawrence64@yahoo.com
(917) 865-0941 - mobile
(718) 387-5059 - fax*

Brook Park hosts Tribes of Humanity gathering

Tribes of Humanity was a phenomenal success.. We glimpsed into the potential of our unity and beauty of our extended Community.. the reality is,
It is all about you, about us, the village, the Tribe, the Collective, the People indeed we have arrived. Our voices were heard, our drums were touched, we peered into one another’s Souls, we healed, we made music, we talked and connected, we grew, we evolved. We practiced ancient traditions & Native Ways ashe ashe as our Ancestors say ashe… ashe we came together that day in a sacred yet festive way…

The drums sounded reflecting the rhythms of the Earth
The smoke signals arose
Children’s laughter
Chopped wood
The Grandfather stones
Our bundles of Prayer
A sacred haven in the South Bronx called Brook Park
We stood in council
We honored the 4 winds and our Ancestors
African Aboriginal locks and Native Indigenous feathers mingled as one
There was honor and wisdom

A bond was made, an unspoken pact was drawn within ourselves, an innerstanding of our connection as children of the Earth that we are all Brothers and Sisters, Indeed this was the beginning of something special..

That day we entered Mother Earth’s womb and were reborn we’ve arrived the birth of a Tribe
Tribe of Humanity

This is when it gets interesting, that was the beginning stay tuned

"Green" exhibition at Haven Arts

"Green" exhibition at Haven Arts

Haven Arts
50 Bruckner Blvd., Bronx, NY  10454

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Carol Zakaluk at 718-292-8217 for information

                                          
“Green”
Curated by Carol Zakaluk

October 17 - October 25, 2008
Opening Reception:  Friday, October 17, 5 - 9pm
Authors’ Talk:  Wednesday,  October 21, 5 - 8pm
Gallery Hours:  Daily, noon - 6pm


Haven Arts is pleased to announce “Green,” a two-part exhibition.  In Gallery I, we will showcase recent projects of organizations and individuals who strive to make both New York City and the nation a greener and more self-sustaining place.  In Gallery II, we will present the work of dedicated eco-artists, and artists who use recycled materials and pigments made from earth.

Exhibiting in Gallery I, the organizations engaged in greening their communities are: Alliance For Climate Protection (posters and television ads from their national campaign), Friends of Brook Park (Mott Haven Tree Project, community garden work, and more), South Bronx CSA Program (growers and consumers providing mutual support), South Bronx Food Coop (providing affordable, nutritious, organic food), and The Bronx TNR Group (Trap, Neuter, and Return of feral cats as humane solution to too many strays).  Also on display are sustainable design proposals for a new Willis Avenue, Bronx corridor, and an air-filtration system for the Major Deegan Expressway by five students from the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.  Architect Juan Carlos Taino contributes green design proposals for the Melrose neighborhood in the Bronx.

Eco-art and earth-friendly art fills Gallery II.  Environmental art as seen in this exhibition interprets nature, informs us about nature’s processes, and stridently calls attention to environmental problems we face.  It re-envisions our relationship to nature, proposing new ways for us to co-exist with our environment.  Some attempts to reclaim or remediate damaged environments, restoring ecosystems in artistic ways.  One piece, created by an artist from South India, reverentially pays homage to the Earth as mother goddess.  Included is work in sculpture, photography, painting, collage, and fiber art by participating artists Bob Braine, Jacob Bluestone, Harry J. Bubbins, Gian Pietro Carriozza, Janet Culbertson, Nickolas Lascot,  MArishka, Walter Mason, Catherine Blackwell-Pena, Sarah Phillips, and Ustya Tarnawsky.

Highlights from “Green” in Gallery II include--

Catherine Blackwell-Pena’s participatory sculpture, where the viewer steps atop a 24” cement square to view a photo of a man on a hillside, standing on a similar square.  The piece invites the viewer to heighten their environmental awareness as they assume a new vantage point both physically and mentally in a re-examination of the clash of culture and nature.

Walter Mason contributes elegantly beautiful, transient “land art” (captured with four photographs) for which he meticulously placed 238 dewdrops on Autumn leaves, and balanced over 80 pebbles on sticks, on sand, and on concrete.

Bob Braine offers eight prints, images taken of North Brother Island, just off the Bronx, depicting nature’s reclamation of the abandoned Riverside Hospital, the contagious disease sanitarium and later, psychiatric hospital.  Braine additionally sent up a weather balloon with attached camera to capture the resurgence of nature through the derelict structures using infrared film.

Harry J. Bubbins offers photographs of his decade plus work in the South South Bronx in gardens and on the waters. With a sculptural installation featuring asphalt that was removed from an abandoned lot, to create more space for greenery.

Nickolas Lascot’s 13’ crocodile sculpture is a beast to be reckoned with, made from recycled newspaper, cardboard, home-made glue, various construction materials, and paint.   

Authors’ Talk

On Wednesday, October 21st from 5 to 8pm, two nationally acclaimed environmentally-minded authors will speak about their work.  Lori Bongiorno (author of "Green, Greener, Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-Smart Choices a Part of Your Life") and Eugene Linden (author of eight books, including "The Winds of Change: Climate, Weather, and the Destruction of Civilizations" and "The Future is in Plain Sight: Nine Clues to the Coming Instability").  After speaking, Ms. Bongiorno and Mr. Linden will answer questions from the audience.  Contact carol@havenarts.org for additional flyer about the talk, or to rsvp for a large group of attendees.


Directions to Haven Arts:  6 train to 3rd Ave./138th St.  Exit the station at the “Alexander Ave” staircase.   Walk South on Alexander Ave.,four short blocks to Bruckner Blvd. Turn left and walk East on Bruckner Blvd., less than 1/2 block to gallery.

Tito Kayak paddles the South Bronx with FoBP!

Friends of Brook Park was honored to outfit and guide the world renowned
environmental activist Tito Kayak of the Vieques movement, and other
efforts, on an exclusive tour of the waterways of the South, South Bronx.
The trip went south on the Harlem River, through the Bronx Kill, and into
the East River with a shoreline tour of North Brother Island. With a 4 foot
striped bass, swans, hawks, environmental devastation of Randall's Island
and more! Strong language. And freestyle rap at the end by Tito himself!
With BronxNet Director Michael aboard.

See the con ed electric feeder lines that block the Bronx Kill and prohibit
easy navigation between the East and Harlem Rivers.

Join our efforts to free the Bronx Kill, create official water access in the
South, South Bronx and preserve Randall's Island!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVyvHr69ek4


**See Tito Kayak's escape from police via kayak after a week long vigil on a
crane to halt development of luxury hotels in Puerto Rico that would have
ended public access to paddled and surfed beaches at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzoP-cKQaCI

Artificial Turf: DANGER!

October 3, 2008

Honorable members of the City Council, Scott Stringer, Borough President of Manhattan and Board Member of Randall's
Island Sports Foundation (RISF) and Aimee Boden, the Executive Director of the RISF:

I appreciate your attendance or that of your representatives at the City Council Parks and Recreation Committee meeting on
Monday, September 22nd, 2008 entitled Oversight of the Randall's Island Sports Foundation and the NYC Parks
Department.

Dr. Crain - a psychologist, who has studied the impacts of lead ingestion by children on their development - provided
testimony that requires your immediate attention as he addressed the real dangers of exposure to lead in synthetic turf fields
in our city. It is therefore worthy of recapping to you.

In his public statements to you on the record (attached for your reference), Dr. Crain announced that the toxicity of
synthetic turf being used by both the Parks Department of Parks and Recreation and the RISF is significant having reached
dangerous levels of lead in both the polyethelene 'blades' and the pellets forming the base or cushion of the turf. A
peer-reviewed study to be published in the Journal of Exposure Science in November (also attached) provides more details
of these findings.

As Dr. Crain noted, esteemed heath scientists such as Philip J. Landrigan, Bruce Lanphear, and R.L. Canfield say there may
be no safe level of lead exposure. Even low levels can damage the child's developing nervous system. Dr. Crain called for
a moratorium on new installations until much more research has been conducted.

Public officials responsible for approving, monitoring or halting the use of synthetic turf also have the responsibility to take
actions to warn the public about this danger and should ensure at the very least that children under the age of 6 years are
kept from the fields until more is known.

Please take note that notice to you of such serious findings require immediate action for both legal and moral reasons and
that your positions as public officials do not insulate you from reckless actions you take in response to this new peer-
reviewed scientific data.

Would you please let me know what steps you are taking to inform the relevant city engineers and commissioners of this
matter and what steps they in turn are taking to remove this environmental threat to the health of those exposed to synthetic
turf?

Thank you for your good work.

Robert Jereski
Co-founder
New York Climate Action Group